Rei's Story
by Reikemi07
Summary: A few years after the Great Ninja war, a prodigy with the name of Rei is born. She didn't know many things about herself, and the desire of finding out answers to her questions was what made her story interesting. !Also on Wattpad. It's always first released there, so make sure to check it out over there too! *Updates every Saturday*
1. Prologue

_**-Prologue-**_

 **There's only darkness around me. No matter how far or how long you walk, it's the same place. Over and over again. It's like you're walking around in circles and the energy you put into trying to escape is pointless.**

 **It never ends. Where am I? How did I get here? Someone please, help me…**

My story begins with me at an orphanage. I never knew who my parents were, and I've always lived at the orphanage until I was the age of 7. They say that I first arrived at the orphanage when I was 3, a few years after the 4th Great Ninja War.

I've often asked myself who I am. I'm probably just one of those people you see everyday but you soon forget because they're irrelevant in your memory. Ever since I was a kid, I frequently question myself everyday. I often asked myself questions like, "Why do I exist?" and "What's my purpose?" But that's what made my life interesting. The desire to unlock those secrets.

My name is Rei. My parents and clan are unknown, and when I first opened my eyes, I was at an orphanage. My first memory was me laying on a hard wooden bed, with a tall woman looking down at me. Her expression was dead serious, and there were no signs of kindness of her face. I looked up at her and stared at her. I was 3 at that time, of course, so I don't remember much of what happened. I was too little to comprehend and understand things, anyway.

The woman was the person who we would call "mother." We are to obey everything she says. This place is an orphanage, and according to mother, an orphanage is where children without parents are "cared for." Yeah right, "cared for." More like a place where they ruin kids from having a normal childhood. I hated staying at the orphanage. It was like living in hell.

At the orphanage, power is everything. If you're at the bottom of the chain, then your life would be very miserable the whole time you're in this place. You'd get beaten and used everyday. If you're at the top, everyone would cower in fear of your presence and honor you like a king. Of course, the adults didn't know of this. We hid it from them.

You are sent to the academy as soon as possible after your fourth birthday to learn to be a shinobi so we could be of some use. Mother said that we were useless hanging around doing nothing so the least we can do is become a ninja to protect the village. She should speak for herself.

There's no point in telling you every single tiny detail about my life, but ninja academy was a drag. Bullies cornered the weak. People talked and fooled around like wild animals. I don't want to be stuck here for hours everyday, but I had to. Mother made me. "You're a prodigy, Rei," she once told me while patting me on the head, "One day you'd be very useful to me."

One thing I don't understand is how everyone gets away with bad scores, but me. I have to aim for perfect scores, and if I didn't, I'd be punished by Mother. What did I do to deserve this? She never answered my questions, but she once did say, "Rei, my child. You will learn to face the consequences of your mistakes." This was unfair. Everything is unfair.

 **Life is unfair.**


	2. Chapter 1: Orphanage (Part 1)

Everyday you had to wake up at 6 am to get ready to go to the academy. No later than 6 am. Mother would walk into our room every morning and ring a bell. If you didn't get off of your bed and wake up in 1 minute, then, you're dead.

The girls would change their clothes by taking turns in the bathroom (which takes forever everyday I swear) and the boys just changed in front of everyone because they don't care. I, being smart, would wake up earlier than the others (around 5 am) so I could take the bathroom for myself before the others woke up. Once everyone woke up at 6 am, there'd be a ton of people fighting for the bathroom.

After I finish changing and brushing my teeth, I would pretend to be asleep until Mother came in so she wouldn't suspect anything. Then when she leaves, I would pretend to be doing something important for a few minutes, and head down to the dining room. No one notices that I didn't use to the bathroom due to the fact that they are so busy with their own problems.

After everyone is changed and finished brushing their teeth, we would head downstairs for breakfast. I never looked forward to meals, and only ate if I was really hungry because meals here sucked. Breakfast was always a piece of bread with water. Lunch was always some sort of vegetables with rice. Dinner was always some kind of random soup. And we wouldn't receive the food for free. We had to work for it. We had to work for crappy food. Amazing, right?

When we finished breakfast, we would walk to school in a group. And like I said, Ninja academy wasn't anything great. It was just the teacher standing up front babbling nonsense for hours. I sat in the middle third row, next to a girl who loves reading. I don't know her name since I never bothered to learn everyone's names, but she was one of the people who were, at least, decent.

Nobody in our class liked the teacher. He gave out written tests weekly and talks the whole day. He only did combat and jutsu training 2 times the whole month. Look, ninjas don't spend their whole life sitting in a desk and writing stuff. That's what journalists and authors do. I didn't really mind the written tests though because they were pretty easy, but everyone else hated them. But after a while, the written tests really got boring and old.

The students in our class decided to create a petition to get a new teacher. A girl with ruby red eyes and short messy black hair was in charge. She sat on the row below me, and was also one of the decent students in the class. She was friendly, energetic, and outgoing. A few years older than me, too. Since we didn't want the teacher to find out that we were doing the petition, we decided to gather in a restaurant after school to get everyone's signatures. But I had chores to do. I couldn't keep Mother waiting, and the teacher wasn't _that_ bad, right?

I walked back to the orphanage, and other people that I walked with to academy in the morning started piling in, too. We were assigned chores. Mother was standing in front of us, holding a giant brown bag, smiling. We all groaned and walked toward her to line up. I was the first one in line, so I was the first one to pick. I grabbed a piece of paper in the back of the bag, walked out of the way, and unfolded it— "mop the whole first floor." I slowly ripped up the piece of paper and tossed it in the trash can. This is the _third_ time already. If I get it again I'm not doing this.

I grabbed a mop, 2 buckets, and a mopping solution from the closet and walked outside to the side of the building to fill one bucket with a hose. Then I dragged the bucket back into the building and put it right next to the door. After that, I grabbed the other bucket and filled it with a type of mopping solution and some water. " _At least I didn't get the second or third floor,"_ I thought as I watched 2 kids coming down the stairs with buckets. I turned back to the bucket with mopping solution and dunked the mop into it, dreading the amount of time this was going to take. After the mop was soaked, wrung it until it was damp, and then took the mop with me to the corner farthest from the door. I wrapped my hands around the handle and mopped the floor in a figure-8 motion while walking backward so I was always standing on the unmopped floor. I often walked back and forth, rinsing the mop and then plunging it in solution over and over.

I was finished mopping the first floor just when the sun started to fall asleep. The crisp ball of fire started to move down, shielded behind the dull fences of the village. I was exhausted, and as soon as I finished cleaning everything up, I ran upstairs to the third floor bedroom, dove onto my bed, and immediately collapsed.

There was a moment of darkness, but then images and muffled voices started flashing into my mind. Most of the images showed a woman in about her 20's with extremely long, straight hair, telling someone that it's okay, and that...everything's fine. "Rei," she suddenly said.


	3. Chapter 1: Orphanage (Part 2)

"Rei!"

I snapped open my eyes to see a girl with long curly locks staring at me with her huge baby blue eyes. Her name was Mika and she was the person I shared my bunk with. She's an okay human being, I guess, but the one flaw about her was that she never knows when to shut up.

"Oh my god, Rei, you're so lucky that I found you here! I just finished washing the dishes downstairs in the kitchen;there was soooo much! It took forever and I'm so exhausted! What was your job? Was it so hard that it drained out all of your energy? You know that if I hadn't woke you up, Mother would be very mad because you know, on Page 2, Number 3 it says—"

"Okay, okay, I get it, thanks. I'll see you at the cafeteria," I interrupted. I rolled my eyes, and still half asleep, I fumbled with the covers, got out of bed, and stumbled to the bathroom. I closed the bathroom door as soon as I got in, put my back to the door, and slowly slid down to the floor. Something doesn't feel right. I usually don't take naps, and...why is the bathroom so blurry?

I put my right hand on the wall, stood up, looked myself in the mirror. For a second, I couldn't recognize the person reflected on it. I squinted, slowly waved my hand, and then recognized myself. " _I'm still me,"_ I thought, and sighed in relief.

Shaking the water off my hands, I walked back into the bedroom and stopped abruptly in the middle of the room for a few seconds. I looked around to make sure that no one was here and walked over to my bed. I looked under the mattress and underneath was a bag of painkillers. I took one out of the bag and swallowed it. An unsettling feeling began welling inside of me. Something was really wrong.

You're probably wondering why a 6 year old would be eating painkillers, is able to speak very properly, knows how to do many things, but that's a whole different story. You see, I'm not your average 6 year old. I need the painkillers in case of, um, Mother, and there's something special about me that makes me different, but I don't know what it is, either.

I put some finishing touches on myself so Mother wouldn't notice that I had taken a nap—combing my hair, washing my face once more, etc. I then checked my watch. 2 minutes until 6 pm. Quickly, I put on my jacket, my shoes, and then rushed downstairs.

"There you are, Rei! I saved a spot for you!" Mika yelled, with a huge smile on her face. "I heard that they're serving chicken soup today! I can just smell the delicious aroma!"

"What? When did they start serving chicken soup?" I exclaimed, confused, as I made my way toward her and sat down next to her. There was no way they'd serve something of such high quality in this place. It was impossible. In my 3 years living in this place never once had I witnessed the serving of chicken soup in the cafeteria.

Mika shrugged to my response and said, "At least we get something good to eat!"

I sighed and put my head down on my table. I knew something was wrong. I thought for a bit, and came up with a possibility: Genjutsu.

At the academy we learned of a ninja technique called genjutsu, one of the main jutsu categories which uses chakra. They are illusionary techniques, and the effects are not real. It is created when a ninja controls the chakra flow of a target's cerebral nervous system, affecting their 5 senses. But is there a genjutsu that could change the way something tastes? That's probably possible, since genjutsu affects your 5 senses, so controlling your "taste" sense would be no problem. Such advanced genjutsu could only be controlled by someone with incredible and precise chakra control to manipulate the target's senses and very high intelligence to make the illusion convincing.

Had someone in the orphanage enraged a powerful genjutsu user? Or was this really chicken soup? If so, why would Mother decide to serve it to us, and how could she even afford it? And if— "Hey, Rei! Look it's Mother!" Mika interrupted, whisper screaming.

As soon as everyone noticed Mother walking into the cafeteria, they all shut up.

"Children," Mother announced. "Today I have stumbled across something fortunate in the kitchen when I returned from my errand. I saw 10 huge pots filled with fresh, warm chicken soup!"

Everyone cheered and screamed. I rolled my eyes and covered my ears with my hands. I swear I'll get deaf if they don't stop screaming so loud every time something little pops up. Mother waited until everyone called down and continued her "speech."

"Now children, I know you're excited and I am too, but first, I have to say something. It is I, your Mother, who made this meal possible for you. I thought that since you poor children haven't ever received such a delicious meal before, Mother decided to serve chicken soup to you all. I called a friend who works as a chef, and she agreed with me to make chicken soup for everyone! She even delivered it to us in a truck!"

Everyone stood up and screamed once more. "Mother! Mother! Mother!" Everyone chanted. Mother was smiling to herself, and I could tell when people are lying. Mother was lying. There was a different story behind her lies.

"Ah, this looks delicious!" Mika exclaims, rubbing her hands together. She had waited an hour in line for just a bowl of chicken soup, and is excited to devour it. I, finding this certain event suspicious, decided to not receive a bowl.

"Mika, I don't think it's a good idea…" I started. Even if it didn't taste like chicken soup, Mika wouldn't stop because we hadn't ever tasted chicken soup. "Why not, Rei?" Mika asked, with the spoon 1 centimeter away from her mouth. I grabbed her hand and took the spoon out from fingers.

"This is suspicious," I muttered. "I have never once heard of Mother having a friend who's a chef, or saw anyone in this world willing to be so kind to donate 10 large pots of chicken soup. They'd rather spend money on something else rather than us worthless kids."

"But Rei, look! The chicken soup is right here! It's real! Mika exclaims. "Maybe Mother had made a new friend recently! Maybe that person was super nice!"

"I don't feel good about this...and I don't want anything to happen to you…" I uttered, and looked to the side.

"Rei…"

Mika slowly teared up and hugged me. "You actually care about me!"

I put on a poker face and slowly took her hands off of my body. "If you touch me again I'll murder you," I threatened.

"Haha, okay," Mika exclaims as she wipes her tears away and smiles. "As delicious as it looks and smells, I won't drink it."


	4. Chapter 1: Orphanage (Part 3)

As I arrived at school and slid open the door to the classroom, everyone fell silent. They closed their mouths instantly and turned to stare at me. I glared back at them and walked toward my seat. What are they looking at?

As I made my way to my seat, I could hear some of them whisper:

"...it's all her fault."

"We could've had a better…"

"...she's the who didn't do it…"

But I ignored them. Once I sat down in my seat, the door suddenly slid open and in came our teacher, the one we dreaded to see. I hadn't thought of him as a bad teacher before, but he's really been getting on my nerves lately.

"Chakra was brought to humans by…"

As the teacher kept on talking, I propped my head on my hands and doodled on a small piece of paper. There was no point in listening to him talk;he was just teaching the same lesson he had taught 2 months ago.

"...everybody stand up."

Nobody moved. None of the students were listening to the teacher talking. I, despite hearing the teacher's orders, decided not to move. Why should I even listen to him?

"I said...STAND UP!"

Everyone in the class suddenly snapped out of their thoughts and immediately stood up. Except me. I don't think he could see me either way with so many people in front of me.

"None of you guys are paying attention...all of you will receive 10 whips."

All the students gasped. Some started crying and pleading. I watched them, begging for their lives to be spared.

" _Peasants…"_ I thought.

"This morning…" the teacher started, "I've overheard some of your conversations."

The students' bodies stiffened, hearing the teacher's words. Their mouths started to quiver.

"Apparently, you guys wanted me _**out**_ , huh…? You wanted your dear teacher to be _**out**_ **!** "

There was no reason to be afraid of the teacher. He was stupid, overweight, and slow like a snail. His Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu absolutely sucks. But since he's a _teacher_ and is in charge of the classroom, the students were afraid of him. There wasn't anyone brave enough in the classroom to talk back or disobey him. They were afraid of being whipped.

Being regularly whipped by Mother's " _Medusa_ ," being whipped by the teacher was nothing compared to it. It didn't hurt. But to those spoiled brats who get spoiled from their parents—oh boy, did it hurt for them.

After the bell rang and the teacher left, the class was silent while packing up their things. Everyone was covered in blood and scars. I quickly packed up my stuff into my backpack;I had tons of chores to do. I swung my backpack walked down the classroom aisle and toward the door. In front of the door blocking my way was a group of girls.

"You know that it's all your fault, right?" A girl with short blue hair and green eyes snapped.

"It's your fault that you didn't show up or sign it," a girl standing next to the other girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes hissed.

"Everyone else did," a girl behind the others sneered.

I did not feel like arguing with them. I needed to go back home to do chores. I don't care about what they want. Why don't you just leave me alone?

I opened my mouth and said calmly, "I don't care about whatever you're talking about. Just move out of my way."

"Why do you think we will listen to you? You snob. Do you think we are not worth _your_ time? You're the one who isn't worth _our_ time!" The girl with long blonde hair spat.

I raised my eyebrows. "Then why are you wasting time on me? You're the one who started talking to me."

There was a few moments of silence before the blonde hair girl replied, "The reason that _teacher_ whipped us, the reason why he's still here, is all your fault."

"How so?"

"You're the only one who didn't sign it."

"Sign what?"

"The petition."

"...I couldn't come that day. I was busy."

"Busy? With what?"

"None of your business, that's what," I muttered and walk passed the girls and out of the door before they could respond.

 **A/N:**

Unedited

I apologize for the long hiatus ^^'


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